The workingmen of Germany have been fooled for a long time. They
constitute that class of which President Lincoln spoke, "You
can fool some of the people all of the time"; and the middle
class of manufacturers, merchants, etc. have acquiesced in the
system because of the profits that they have made.
The difficulty of making peace with Germany, as at present
constituted, is that the whole world feels that peace made with
its present government would not be lasting; that such a peace
would mean the detachment of some of the Allies from the present
world alliance against Germany; preparation by Germany, in the
light of her needs as disclosed by this war; and the declaration
of a new war in which there would be no battle of the Marne to
turn back the tide of German world conquest.
For a long time before this war, radicals in Great Britain pinned
a great faith to the Socialist party of Germany. How little that
faith was justified appeared in July and August of 1914 when the
Socialist party tamely voted credits for the war; a war declared
by the Emperor on the mere statement that it was a defensive
war; declared because it was alleged that certain invasions of
German territory, never since substantiated, had taken place.
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